4 Ways a Facility Manager Can Impact Corporate Culture
Keywords: facility management, facility manager, integrated facility management
Facility managers play a multi-dimensional role in Indian workplaces—they work with the EHS team to ensure employee safety and well-being, and the IT department to optimise processes, track employee experiences, and even build brand reputation and retention.
That’s not all. Facility managers go further to improve the corporate culture as well. The following are some of the ways they do so.
1. Supporting people
The facility manager’s primary responsibility is to create a work environment that is comfortable and safe for the employees. This not only serves the employees but also the organisation’s broader goals, such as retaining top talent, improving efficiencies, and creating a positive work culture.
The facility management team offers support in various areas, like space planning, employee directories management, emergency planning, housekeeping, pantry services, etc. Thus, the team acts as a bridge between the organisation and its employees.
2. Establishing processes
Processes govern the organisation’s facility management program, bringing order to the workplace. The facility management team creates a system of expectations for the employees to follow within the working environment, thereby improving the way they utilise the workplace.
A few examples of such processes that facility managers establish include safety behaviour, emergency action planning, health and wellbeing routines, and proactive systems maintenance.
It is the facility manager’s role to identify governance areas and establish processes to cover them—it is up to them to create order from chaos at the workplace to improve the workplace culture.
3. Maintaining the facility and critical systems
Workplace culture goes beyond just serving the employees. For instance, if the HVAC system of the facility is malfunctioning, it can create discomfort, hampering the productivity and efficiency of the teams. Thus, facility managers work in tandem with the management team to ensure that the facility is well-maintained.
Integrated facility management solutions offer proactive technical maintenance services for the facility and its critical systems, including technology integrations like IoT or BMS to further enhance the facility’s efficiencies. Facility managers can turn the facility into a competitive advantage instead of a cost centre—an environment best suited for functional and healthy work culture.
It is the facility manager’s role to identify governance areas and establish processes to cover them—it is up to them to create order from chaos at the workplace to improve the workplace culture.
Integrating technology
As mentioned earlier, facility managers enhance the work culture through technological interactions across the spectrum. They do so with various technologies, such as the following:
- Building Management System (BMS) that helps aggregate data from multiple sources of the facility
- Internet of Technology (IoT) aids BMS and automates different facility management functions
- Occupational sensors and monitoring systems to ensure energy efficiency and comfort of the employees
- Touchless entry and exit points to secure the employees from touch-based infections
- Access control systems to protect critical assets of the company from unauthorised access
These technologies aid the workplace become more efficient, productive, and transparent, thereby improving the workplace culture.
The ideal facility management team employs the above-mentioned elements in its strategy without compromising health, quality, or returns. Facility management, after all, is about giving the workplace a robust foundation for success. Let Unify do that for you with our IFM solutions. Contact us today.